Commemorated September 16 (New Calendar) September 29 (Old Calendar)

Blessed Ludmilla was a daughter of a Serbian prince. She was given in marriage to the Czech prince Borivoj. They were baptized, built churches, and set priests in them. Borivoj died at thirty-six. Ludmilla bore her grief and gave her goods to the poor. After her son’s death, her daughter-in-law Dragomira turned the land back toward the old gods and sent men to kill her. They broke into the house on a Saturday, in the first hour of the night, put a rope around her neck, and strangled her. She was sixty-one. Her grandson Wenceslaus later carried her relics to the church of Saint George in Prague.

The memory in St. Demetrius of Rostov records her life and death. It does not preserve her spoken words.

Who stood with her

Borivoj was her husband. They received holy Baptism from Saint Methodius. They had three sons and one daughter. Wenceslaus, her grandson, was raised in the faith and later moved her relics. Dragomira opposed her and ordered her death.

She kept the faith in a household and a land that tried to go back to the dark.

We ask her prayers when the faith must be handed on in a family, and when those nearest us hate the Church we will not leave.

Pray for us

Troparion, Tone 3
“Your holy martyr Ludmilla, O Lord,
through her sufferings has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God.
For having Your strength, she laid low her adversaries,
and shattered the powerless boldness of demons.
Through her intercessions, save our souls!”

The OCA page for this feast does not print a separate kontakion.

Saint Ludmilla, pray for us.

Sources

St. Demetrius of Rostov, Lives of the Saints, September 16.
https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Dmitrij_Rostovskij/zhitija-svjatykh/793

Orthodox Church in America, Martyr Ludmilla, grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus, Prince of the Czechs.
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2019/09/16/102633-martyr-ludmilla-the-grandmother-of-saint-wenceslaus-prince-of-th

This site is a lamp, not a parish. Listen to the life. Then find a living Orthodox church and ask a priest to pastor you.
https://pieceofhumanity.com/find-a-parish/